Fix Retreats

[FelixZ]

In next release candidate, a stack won't MTSG if it has to cross a river which is being blockaded by ships, or if the ZOC in its own region (generated by enemy) would prevent it from entering it (its own and current region), meaning it can't reach the battle region.

Pocus

What about non-MTSG retreats over a blockaded river. Had happen several times in AACW and at least once in CW2. Where a stack is trapped on one side of a river but retreats over a river which is blocked by ships. There usually is an unoccupied region adjacent to the battle which is controlled by the attacking side but the retreater ignores that region and passes over the river through the fleets.

[Merlin]

Blocking a river isn't guaranteed. I'm fine with that.

[FelixZ]

Blocking a river isn't guaranteed. I'm fine with that.

My experience has been that retreats always passed over a river through blocking fleets - never a failure.

[Merlin]

Really? My experience is the opposite; retreats across a contested river have always failed, and ended ugly.

[Ace]

After playing with the new code a bit, I have to ask is the retreat parameter that gives retreat weight to the starting region of the attack working now. I had units attacking me and retreat through me to instead retreating to their starting region?

[Pocus]

The only condition that can prevent retreat into a region right now is the value of ctlAllowRetreat that should be 5% unless someone put it to 0% for fun

I'm in the process of upgrading the retreat checks with the same tests as the MTSG check, so will be added for next RC the test of blocked links because of presence of hostile ships in a river/strait and I'll see if I can test ZOC in the destination region, but that's not a given.

EDIT ... about the ZOC generation and the front effect, i.e not being able to go into another region, because there is an enemy presence in your region that is blocking you from exiting, except in an adjacent region with high MC from you.

The code existed in 2009 and has been commented out, on purpose. Because if you are in battle, then you have enemies, and they generate a ZOC. It means that depending of the value of the enemy, you might be unable to retreat in a friendly region which has a MC much above 5%. If you are confronting the army of Potomac and want to retreat, it can generate such a ZOC that no region except one with perhaps 60%-80% MC of your can be retreated into!

So as you see, this rule is drastically changing how the game plays. We will go from 'not being able to retreat in a region with less than 5% MC' to a rule which will be much more harder on retreaters. It can only be added as an option that grognards will activate, but for the general public, 5% is enough. It means you can't retreat in region where the enemy is alone and you have no troops to maintain this low MC, so that's good enough for me.

[pgr]

The code existed in 2009 and has been commented out, on purpose. Because if you are in battle, then you have enemies, and they generate a ZOC. It means that depending of the value of the enemy, you might be unable to retreat in a friendly region which has a MC much above 5%. If you are confronting the army of Potomac and want to retreat, it can generate such a ZOC that no region except one with perhaps 60%-80% MC of your can be retreated into!

So as you see, this rule is drastically changing how the game plays. We will go from 'not being able to retreat in a region with less than 5% MC' to a rule which will be much more harder on retreaters. It can only be added as an option that grognards will activate, but for the general public, 5% is enough. It means you can't retreat in region where the enemy is alone and you have no troops to maintain this low MC, so that's good enough for me.

So if I understand correctly, prior to this RC, retreating stacks ( and MTSG stacks?) we're exempted from ZOC rules governing where they could land? In place of the ZOC, the minimum MC rule was put into place? (which of course was dis-activated).

The ZOC is Patrol value/evasion value < or = to the MC of the target destination correct? I can see a lot of instances where that value is over 5...

It sounds like its going to make having Cav in a stack even more important....

[Pocus]

yes, you got it. In 1.05 RC1 the ZOC is reinstated for testing purpose, you'll see it changes a lot!

[bigus]

This was from a previous ACW1 thread.

http://www.ageod-forum.com/showthread.php?14746-Retreat&highlight=retreat

[bigus]

yes, you got it. In 1.05 RC1 the ZOC is reinstated for testing purpose, you'll see it changes a lot!

Yes, you will.
you'll see whole armies destroyed.This is why in testing the beta team went with MC of 0.